


Pared Equality

by Merfilly



Series: Walking along the Moebius [6]
Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Fae & Fairies, Gen, Magic, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-01
Updated: 2011-11-01
Packaged: 2017-10-25 14:27:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/271292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Didymus reminds a Sarah at the right time, and Jareth finally learns.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pared Equality

The day had been hard and long, with three more rejection slips for her writing in the mail, and two directors telling her 'don't call us'. Sarah Williams was miserable, and still uneasy for reasons that wouldn't focus in her mind. She remembered seeing a creepy looking guy the day before, but creepy guys came with life.

Sarah opened her door into her apartment, and froze where she was, hearing a voice.

"Ambrosius, we are too late!"

"Who's here?" Sarah demanded.

There was a rustle and a flurry of motion, then nothing but silence in the apartment.

"I'm armed!" Sarah warned, cautiously entering the apartment. Maybe the neighbor's TV had been on and loud. Maybe that was all it had been, as she systematically searched, room by room. The living area and kitchen were clear, as were the two tiny bedrooms and the bathroom.

She shook her head, trying to clear it. No one was there, nothing was moved, and she didn't have any reason to be so antsy.

//Nerves,// she told herself, dropping down on the couch to see if the rejects had any helpful criticism to use. She firmly pushed the incident away, then wondered why she was thinking about a pet long ago lost to age and time.

`~`~`~`~`

"Ambrosius, I think this will do!" Didymus said, looking around the austere apartment, not yet lived in. Boxes littered the floors, and only bare necessities cluttered the counters. The 'bed' in one room was no more than an air mattress, and the 'table' was a large box that was taped still and had a sheet thrown over it for cover. "She stopped calling to us while she still lived with her noble father, after all."

The steed gave a 'woof' of agreement, then carried his knight to the makeshift table. Didymus took the small chest he carried and placed it in plain sight, cracking the lid to make a fluffy piece of fabric show.

His good deed done, the knight returned to his charger, and let the magic take them home.

"I do hope this breaks the evil curse," Didymus said, never once failing to believe in Hoggle's decree that such a thing had befallen them.

`~`~`~`~`

The apartment, Sarah's dream and haven now, was a welcome place to be. She entered, set the bag of groceries on the counter, went and slipped into her most comfy pair of pajamas, and then started looking for her favorite notebook to write in. As she was, she noticed the little chest, and stopped her quest to stare at it instead. It was carved in steps that seemed to twine in on themselves in impossible reflections of endless repetition.

"Don't remember that…" she murmured, going to inspect the wooden box. She knelt down beside the makeshift table, reaching out to open the box. As she did, there was a tingle along her fingers, reaching back up along her nerves and down into her soul. The items spilled out as she pulled the box closer, trinkets and baubles, a bear, pictures, even a book.

Her fingers skimmed over the book, again feeling the ripple of power, before she turned to one of the most well-thumbed parts of the story.

"For my will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom is as great..."

`~`~`~`~`

There was a boy in the street, looking lost despite the arrogance etched in his angular features. The sun glinted off hair so pale as to be white. Sarah saw him, and knew, in her soul, that this moment was meant for her, one of those points in life meant to change destiny forever.

"Let me help you," Sarah said, dropping down to look at the boy, his fate tied in hers. "My name is Sarah."

"I… don't want to give you a name," the boy said firmly. "But you may help me."

"Then I will call you James, after a brilliant dreamer," Sarah told him, without reservation, as fate danced closer.

The ripple of magic, as she touched his hand, taking it her own, was unnoticed by any save a thin, gangly man with brilliant red hair. He was too far from them to do a thing that day.

`~`~`~`~`

"What do you believe in, then?"

"Myself, and nothing else!" he told her firmly.

Sarah started to answer him in as much jest as she used for his other pompous pronouncements, but just as she had rebelled against leaving him nameless, her soul slapped at her mouth, shutting away the hurtful words. Instead, she dropped down to his level, looking him in the eyes.

"Faith in yourself is never a bad thing," she agreed. "But sometimes, it is necessary to have another you can believe in as well."

James's eyes narrowed, and then he nodded once. "Perhaps, someday, there will be one nearly equal enough for me to do so."

They continued, memories of the zoo blurring as the day fell to evening, and the magic took hold once more.

`~`~`~`~`

"Everything that you wanted I have done. You asked that the child be taken. I took him. You cowered before me, I was frightening. I have reordered time. I have turned the world upside down, and I have done it all for **you**! I am exhausted from living up to your expectations of me. Isn't that generous?" Jareth demanded.

Sarah opened her mouth, but his words about time rang in her head.

He had reordered time, yet…

She met his eyes, and saw in them a harbinger of something more, as if he knew the very power of his words that were true and yet not. "Time was reordered, yes…" she agreed.

"And what of it?!" Jareth demanded, uneasy and feeling his power encroached on. A few more seconds and he would win.

Sarah felt the tingle of anticipation, knew the game was still there, and yet… something had manipulated them both. From the corner of her eye, she saw motion, and it was neither Toby nor Jareth nor a goblin, but something with bright red hair. "Give me the child. Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the child that you have stolen. For my will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom is as great... " She hesitated, the line hovering beyond her grasp, time ticking away, and the presence of magic all around her. She looked into Jareth's bi-colored eyes, saw the anticipation of the game's end there, and reached for what felt right.

"Sarah…."

That tone was demand and plea in one. Jareth was bound, as she was, by the contract of the game they had entered, but Sarah knew that rules were meant for breaking. "You have no power over me… nor I over you."

The world fell down.

`~`~`~`~`

The party was no more, and Sarah dreamed with the full power of imagination at her beck and call. Before the dawn broke, her restless spirit drew her awake once more. Slipping free of the house was an easy thing when the night still held sway over her parents, and Toby had yet to cry since his fateful adventure. She stood under the sky, a faint glow of rose in the east, and looked above.

A single feather, perhaps from a snowy owl, floated into her hands.

"You'll be watching," Sarah said softly, but a girl laden with dreams and magic. "And I will be waiting."

`~`~`~`~`

The fae lords and ladies who had felt the geas shatter scrambled to regroup, calling back their scouts and armies, but too late. The Goblin Horde, deprived of a good fight and a new member in their ranks, first expelled the Fireys from their ranks, knowing them now as spies. They then sprawled out of the Labyrinth, directed by the wrath of their King.

He had enemies to dispel, for in time he would have his Queen, now that he knew faith in one beyond himself.


End file.
